JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Auctioneer GoIndustry DoveBid South Africa will be facilitating the sale of the Lerala diamond mine, in the Palapye region of Botswana, through an online auction, with final bids to close on Wednesday.
GoIndustry Dovebid SA associate director John Taylor told Mining Weekly Online on Monday that, with mine auctions, the action always happens right at the end, in the last half-hour before closing, since bidders hold their cards close to their chests for as long as possible.
AdvertisementHe confirmed, however, that the company has received interest in the mine’s sale when it set up a data room, with all the necessary geology reports and mine data. “We had about 12 people sign up for access to the information.”
Kopanong Thekiso was appointed as the provisional liquidator of the mine in mid-2017, following the mine’s failure to generate income under the ownership of now closed Australian miner Kimberley Diamond Company.
AdvertisementThe mine is situated in north-east Botswana and comprises five diamondiferous kimberlite pipes, ranging from 0.16 ha to 2.35 ha. One pit has been partially developed and mined.
The site is not far from miner Debswana’s Orapa openpit diamond mine, in the central district of Botswana.
The transaction will include the transfer of the mining licence and rights; a complete processing plant, which includes a 200 t/h conventional fines plant and a course dense medium separation (DMS) plant; final integrated X-ray recovery house; primary jaw crusher; secondary cone crusher; high-pressure roll crusher; scrubbers; material reticulation of conveyors; screens; bins; thickener plant and tailing dams; diesel generator plant; electrical reticulation; workshops; offices; and a mining camp.
The public auction event includes the sale of the pits, the resource, the process plant and ancillary equipment. To bid, interested parties will have to pay a refundable P5-million deposit.
“Online auctions enable the seller to reach a wider audience, while also giving buyers from across the world the opportunity to place their bid on big ticket items, such as this diamond mine,” explains Taylor.
MINE HISTORY
The Palapye region was first explored by De Beers Prospecting Botswana in 1988, a process which primarily involved soil sampling across the entire area. This continued through to 1991 and aided De Beers in relinquishing 50% of the “barren” areas, and led to the discovery of eight kimberlite intrusions, grouped in two distinct clusters.
The eastern cluster had little diamond potential, whereas the western cluster was prioritised for detailed evaluation in 1992.
Following the kimberlite discovery and evaluation thereof, a special purpose vehicle company, held 85% by De Beers Botswana and 15% by the Botswana government, was formed to undertake a trial mining exercise to ascertain grade. Mining took place from April 1997 to December 2000 and, within that same month, De Beers concluded that the mine was economically viable.
Following De Beers’ withdrawal from the Lerala mine, DiamonEx was granted the prospecting licences in 2002, and bulk sampling and large diameter drilling started in May 2004.
The results of the bulk sampling evaluation led to DiamonEx board’s decision to build and commission a 200 t/h DMS plant. In 2010, DiamonEx was acquired by Mantle Diamonds and sold to Kimberley Diamond Company in 2013.
In July 2015, the Kimberley Diamond Company board approved the restart of mining activities at the Lerala mine.
Lerala mine has reached a number of impressive milestones, many of which were achieved in the scope of a single year. The first kimberlite ore was mined in April 2016, which was fed into the plant in the same month.
In the same year, the mining team completed their first blast and the first diamonds were recovered in May 2016.
Thereafter, the mine had to be shut down twice owing to weak sales, until it finally was placed under judicial management, leaving 130 people out of jobs and millions in unpaid bills.